NOTHING IS LOST Art and Matter in Transformation

At GAMeC, the second chapter of the Trilogy of Matter

On October 14, Nothing is Lost. Art and Matter in Transformation opens to the public, curated by Anna Daneri and Lorenzo Giusti. The show is the second chapter in the Trilogy of Matter, a long-term exhibition project begun in October 2018 with the exhibition Black Hole. Art and Materiality from Informal to Invisible, curated by Sara Fumagalli and Lorenzo Giusti.

The project involves art historians, curators, philosophers, and scientists, and addresses a transversal debate around the theme of matter, while at the same time activating a dialogue with the history of scientific discoveries and drawing a comparison with the development of aesthetic theories. The program foresees a cycle of three exhibitions, accompanied by as many publications, featuring the presence of artists and works of various generations.

After the first appointment in the cycle—dedicated to the essence of matter, to all its depth, in dialogue with the theories of modern physics—the second exhibition in the program turns its attention to the work of those artists who, at various times, have investigated the transformation of matter, drawing inspiration from the lives of the elements to develop a reflection on the reality of things, on change, and on time.

“Rien ne se perd” (“nothing is lost”) is the opening to the famous maxim attributed to Lavoisier, with which the French chemist explained the general sense of his law of the conservation of mass, which stated that over the course of a chemical reaction, the sum of the mass of the reactants is equal to the sum of the masses of the substances. Matter, in other words, cannot be created and cannot be destroyed. This fundamental principle would set the stage for a number of founding notions of modernity, which over the centuries to come, would lead to the definition of the theory of relativity and thus to the identification of a substantial equivalence between mass and energy, and hence to the progressively more elaborate belief—as recounted by scientists, artists, and philosophers—in matter which is always alive, always present, part of a world in endless transformation.

Nothing is Lost. Art and Matter in Transformation will occupy all the exhibition spaces of the GAMeC, developing an itinerary with a strong sensorial impact, given the material and synesthetic nature of the numerous works on display, on loan from international collections both public and private. The four sections of the exhibition—Fire, Earth, Water, and Air—refer to the natural elements, understood here as the states of material aggregation, and thus preempt its relationships and transformations: fire/burning state; earth/solid state; water/liquid state; and air/gaseous state.
With a rich selection of works, the show provides an articulated framework, one capable of highlighting the strong link which has always bound artists to the chemistry of the elements and the transformation of matter. A field of study and experimentation which in our own era also constitutes a significant declination in terms of a reflection on the impact of human presence on the natural equilibria (from the availability of resources to climate change).

The exhibition will bring together works from various eras, ranging from Dada and Surrealist works, reflecting the interest of various artists—such as Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Man Ray, or Leonora Carrington—in the theme of alchemy, through to creations by some of the leading exponents of the neo-avant-gardes—from Yves Klein to Otto Piene, from Robert Smithson to Hans Haacke—including compositions by artists akin to the poetics of #arte Povera—Pier Paolo Calzolari and Paolo Icaro—sculptural works and installations by artists who emerged in the 1980s—from Rebecca Horn to Liliane Lijn—right up to the latest research of some of the most important international artists of recent generations, such as Olafur Eliasson, Wolfgang Tillmans, Cyprien Gaillard, Otobong Nkanga, Erika Verzutti, and many others.

Further information in the press release to download